I think the reasoning for such parity in the last decade and a half is that teams are smarter. Improved scouting, teams know their own strengths, have better roster creation for the playoffs, and can exploit other team’s weaknesses. I think if you look at the 2008 Cubs for instance, the team had the best record in the NL but was swept by the Dodgers mainly due to the Dodgers never throwing a lefty at a righty heavy Cubs lineup.

This 2016 Cubs team doesn’t really have any weaknesses right now, unless they have more injuries occur, and the historically great teams I looked at, were also juggernauts in that regard.

The teams in recent history that broke the 105-win threshold all made it to the World Series except that Seattle team who lost to the Yankees at the end of their dynasty run so maybe 105 is the point where teams aren’t just good but exceptional where the rules of parity no longer exist? That was a point I was trying to get across.

Despite the sweep against the Nationals, play either them or the Mets in a one-game wild card at your peril.

Love the article, but you are saying having the best record in baseball over the course of the year, is more difficult than getting though 2 play off series.
If that is true, why has only one team with the best record won the WS since 2000.

Or am I misunderstanding what you are saying?

The argument works both ways as well. You can argue for those teams pre-playoff expansion were guaranteed to get in; however, you’re basically saying it was easier to make the World Series back then than it is now. I would highly disagree with that sentiment because you had to have the best record in your league, period. There was no second chance and even if you were a historically great team, there could have been another team better than you (1931 for example).

One of the reasons I also used three different lenses to investigate, was because neither of the hot start teams or highest run differential teams were guaranteed to be the best team in their division record-wise, so their auto-inclusion into the World Series was not guaranteed pre-playoff expansion.

It’s largely irrelevant with the playoff system we have today. Only a few of those teams had to participate in even so many two rounds of playoffs (1969 and onward). Totally changes the equation.